Digital TimesCampaigns | Digital Times

Seeking social entrepreneurs – €10,000 on offer

Alejandro — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:22:42 +0000

Ben & Jerry

If you have a business (or a business idea) and are committed to sustainability, then you’re what’s known as a [potential] social entrepreneur. The latest prize fund made available for European social entrepreneurs comes from Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream brand.
The brand is looking for five socially responsible entrepreneurs from across Europe to win the ‘Join our core’ competition. Each winner will receive €10,000 in cash and mentoring from Ashoka. Successful entrants will pitch their ideas to a panel of industry leaders, including Jerry Greenfield (co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s), The Fairtrade Foundation and Ashoka.

Go to joinourcore.com for further details.

Irish Government ‘threatens Ireland’s digital economy’

Mark — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:29:50 +0000

Minister of State at the department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Sean Sherlock

A junior Minister of the current government intends to bring through the Dáil a new law that ‘threatens Ireland’s digital economy’.
The law is being enacted by ministerial order. It is not being debated in the Dáil. The law closely resembles the SOPA Bill that was defeated recently in the US.
Essentially the legal amendment gives music and film companies the right to demand that ISPs like UPC and eircom block access to sites suspected of having copyrighted material on them.
What is most sinister is that Irish judges will be able to order ISPs to block access to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter where an individual user from ‘anywhere in the world’ has shared infringing material.
“The introduction of this sort of legislation without proper debate could only have negative impact on the digital industry and the Irish economy as a whole,” says Michele Neylon of Blacknight.
Simon McGarr of McGarr Solicitors, a litigation lawyer based in Dublin who stands with Blacknight on this issue states: “Irish Internet users are in a race to save their Internet. The Minister has said he is bringing in this bad law before the end of January, with no Dáil debate.”
McGarr Solicitors urges everyone who cares about the free exchange of ideas to sign the Stop SOPA Ireland petition at stopsopaireland.com, “before the Irish Internet starts to go dark.”

SIGN PETITION HERE.

More details here.

Many thousands sign ‘piracy law’ petition.

Vodafone offers ‘free’ smartphones for 24 month contract

Gerard — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:02:50 +0000

Vodafone recently reached the 200,000 home customers mark. To extend this number, the company is now offering a free Android smartphone* to its 200,000 existing customers, as well as any new home customers it signs.
The Vodafone Smart 858 Android smartphone is the phone on offer. It will come with three months free mobile web access on pay as you go. To get the free smartphone, customers (existing and new) must sign a 24 month contract, not the usual 12 month contract. The cost of Vodafone at Home starts at €38 a month for 8Mbps broadband with 40GB data usage.

*Free Smartphone with all new 24 month Vodafone at Home contracts, while stocks last. 12 month contract applies to Vodafone at Home without the free smartphone offer.

Google spends millions to battle privacy concerns

Gerard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:56:33 +0000

This is strange. Google in the US is spending tens of millions on a print and outdoor advertising campaign to alleviate privacy concerns. Google, advertising in print? Times have changed.
The ‘Good to Know’ campaign offers tips and advice to people on what data they should share with Google and other websites and social networks.
The new campaign is most likely in response to concerns about its new ‘Search plus Your World’ feature on its search engine. The new feature has caused a fair amount of public anxiety stateside as people realise their information, photos and updates from their Google+ account may now be easily found on Google search.
Search plus Your World blends Google+ information with Google search results, much in the same way people’s Facebook updates are blended with search results on Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
As with any new Google feature that involves ‘private’ information, there is bound to be opposition and public scrutiny. Google’s previous social network, Buzz, failed because Google didn’t respond quickly enough to users’ privacy concerns. Google later admitted it had violated its own privacy policies when it introduced Buzz.
The multi-million dollar ‘Good to Know’ ad campaign is also being rolled out at a time when Google is facing increasing regulatory battles in the US.

Hireland wants 5,000 employers to pledge a job

Stephen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:56:33 +0000

Hireland is a new initiative aimed at encouraging job creation for Ireland’s skilled unemployed. To support its launch, Hireland published a survey that shows 52% of SMEs plan to hire one or more people this year.
Half of all new jobs will be full time, 30% will be mostly part time and the balance will be a mixture of full time and part time jobs. The research did, however, also reveal that 43% are undecided about their recruitment plans.
“The findings of the research are positive, but it is clear that there are many business owners out there who have been toying with the notion of taking on additional staff, but don’t feel confident enough to do so,” says Gerard O’Neill, Chairman of Amárach Research and co-founder of Hireland.
Business owners can pledge a job on hireland.ie and also benefit from some positive PR (all jobs and employers will be publicised).
Ireland’s media industry is playing its part and has given €500,000 in advertising to support the launch of the initiative. Hireland’s campaign includes newspaper, television, radio and outdoor advertising, as well as digital and PR activity.
Hireland is a volunteer, not-for-profit group that has developed a national communications initiative to encourage employers to hire one of the thousands of skilled people who are currently out of work.
60% of the 150 SMEs surveyed said they’d be willing in principle to support an initiative like Hireland and make a public pledge to hire at least one new staff member this year

Facebook looks to award and recognise advertisers

Emma — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:24:03 +0000

Facebook, the world’s second biggest publisher after Google, has two advertising awards that aim to drive creativity and results from agencies and advertisers.
The Facebook Studio Awards will recognise the agencies behind the best Facebook campaigns of 2011.
Judging is based on the following criteria:
• Is the campaign social? Are people and social interactions at the core of the idea? Does it motivate people to share?
• Does it make full use of Facebook marketing products? Does the campaign take advantage of Facebook’s full potential?
• Does it integrate with other media? Is the Facebook idea part of a larger multimedia campaign?
• Does it scale? Is it easy for people to interact with and share your content?

Agencies and brands are expected to submit campaigns that include:
▪ An inspired, well-executed idea that people want to share
▪ Ideas with staying power that transform businesses through social technology
▪ Innovative uses of Facebook that make something happen through sharing
The deadline for these is nearly upon us, December 31, 2011.
The second award is the CLIO. The deadline for the CLIO Special Recognition Award for Facebook Integrated Media is January 20, 2012. The entries are expected to combine Facebook with one or more traditional media such as film, print, and out of home, in a “new and innovative way”.

Tourism Ireland’s social media campaign wins in the UK

Mark — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:08:45 +0000

Tourism Ireland won three awards at the 2011 DMA Awards in London recently. It won awards for its social media campaign, called “Nick and Sam’s Ireland Road Trip”, in the following categories:
- Gold in the travel and holidays category;
- Bronze for best use of social media;
- Bronze for best integrated campaign.

The campaign saw Nick and Sam Brown (below), a couple from Bath, embarking on a week-long road-trip with a twist – they weren’t in charge of their own itinerary. Instead, Facebook and Twitter users across Britain were ‘in control’ and were given the chance to decide where the couple should go and what they should do.
Over 50,000 people in the UK visited the campaign webpage and 11,500 used social media, resulting in a +1,000% increase in engagement on Tourism Ireland’s Facebook page in the UK. Nick and Sam uploaded more than 20 films during their time in Ireland, which were viewed 23,300 times. Almost 20,000 people entered the competition to win a road-trip of their own.

Audi’s new mobile marketing campaign

Edward — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:13:04 +0000

The new Audi Q3 advertising campaign incorporates iTagged, a new mobile media platform. Audi is the first company in Ireland to use this platform. It allows people to download branded content directly from ads (outdoor and print) onto their smart phones and tablet devices simply by entering a ‘tag’ or a word. The tag ‘Audi Q3’ will then let them book a test drive, request a brochure, view video content and enter competitions.
A campaign is running across mainstream outdoor, digital outdoor, print and radio. Users entering the tag ‘WIN’ into iTagged have the opportunity to win an iPad 2. The iTagged app is free on the App store and Android Market.

Pop-up shops for bloggers

Emma — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:48:24 +0000

Here at DT we really like this innovation from Swedish interior design retailer Lagerhaus (nothing to do with beer). Meet the world’s first pop-up shops for blogs.
Rather than creating a pop-up shop on its Facebook page, Lagerhaus created a pop-up shop widget for blogs and then gave it to some influential interior design bloggers.
The bloggers embedded the widget on their blogs and then started to customize the ‘stores’ with their favourite Lagerhaus products.
The campaign is clever on many levels not least because it engages with key influencers and has a far greater reach than just opening a store on one company Facebook page.
The campaign was run by a PR firm, PrimePR and has been shortlisted for the European Excellence Awards. The results are impressive, the campaign generated 13,000 peer-to-peer invitations to the fan-only opening of the online store, increased Facebook fans by 226% and interactions 360% (see video).

Pull a cracker, beat a world record and help the Simon Community

Stephen — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:05:46 +0000

Carphone Warehouse and the Simon Community will attempt to break the world record for the highest number of simultaneous Christmas cracker pulls, this December 2nd on Hanover Quay, Grand Canal, Dublin 2. The event will take place at 12.30pm and is open to everyone to join in.
The record currently stands at 1,478, and they are aiming to top that by achieving 1,600 cracker pulls at once. If the record is broken, Carphone Warehouse will donate “a generous amount” to the Simon Community.
As well as the world record attempt, Carphone Warehouse is donating all profits from its annual in-store gift-wrap to the charity. That means a 50c donation for each and every gift that’s wrapped. It will further donate €1 for every new fan on its Facebook page until they hit 22,000. Carphone Warehouse hopes to raise over €10,000 for the Simon Community through this initiative.
Carphone Warehouse extends an invitation to the public to take part in the record breaking attempt. On the day, there will be treats available for anyone who takes part, in addition to Christmas carol sing-along with some special Irish music acts.

INVITE: WORLD RECORD CRACKER PULLING ATTEMPT
Where? Hanover Quay, Grand Canal, Dublin 2.
When? December 2nd, 2011, at 12:30pm.